BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com

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Top cop 'nervous' about likely retirement surge


Sat, 7 Nov 2009 04:00
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com

Chicago Police Supt. Jody Weis said Friday he is "extremely nervous" that a wave of police retirements next year -- after an arbitrator rules on the new police contract -- will stretch a burgeoning manpower shortage beyond levels he considers safe.

Roughly 1,000 officers are eligible to retire now that Mayor Daley has promised to extend premium health benefits to officers who call it quits at 55. But many are waiting until the contract is settled in hopes that a raise will lock in a higher rate of retirement pay.

The Police Department has 600 sworn vacancies and is 2,000 officers short of authorized strength.

After hiring only 46 police officers this year, Daley's 2010 budget uses federal stimulus funds to add just 86 officers, 30 of them for the CTA.

That's nowhere near enough hiring to solve the manpower shortage that Weis fears is about to get dramatically worse.

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